Life Update – January 2018 review

Hello everybody,
I’m doing a Life Update to tell you what’s on my mind the past few days.

In this post I will share:
Lessons learned in business and life
Thoughts on Day Zero
Blog things

Thoughts on Day Zero
I’m being mindful on how I save water, especially when it comes to cooking at home. For instance, I steam veggies, trying to use the same water for something else. Food24 has 20 “waterless” recipes here and Laura-Kim shared her recipes of where minimal water is used.

I feel like I haven’t completely grasped the situation in Cape Town because I don’t live there. Seeing videos of people being ill-mannered when they are in the shops getting boxes of water, really saddens me. People are getting desperate.
I also think of the people who cannot afford to buy water in bulk. Yor.

Lessons learned in business
Value someone else’s time. Last year I met up with someone I had wanted to be my mentor. This person asked me to send out an agenda beforehand of what our meeting will be about. I was surprised but also got huge respect for this person.

Value your own time, even if you are a volunteer. Last year I volunteered and I put in a lot of work but I gave up on the initiative because one of the co-founders didn’t seem to value my time.

Lastly, failure happens. You feel like a failure if you for example go to job interview and then you’re told that you’re not what the people want. Sometimes it’s not about you. And remember, failure happens a lot to everyone, even if you feel it’s just happening to you.

Lessons in life
Stay in your lane – in this time that we have social media, it’s easy to wish you have something that someone else has. Then you can quickly forget to focus on what you want, and taking the steps to your goal. Focus on doing and crafting your thing.
Staying in your lane, for me, also means to have gratitude.

Gratitude: even though it sucks to get up on weekends to make my kid breakfast, like her bottle or porridge (I’m saying this because I feel like sleeping in), I’m grateful we have food and water.

Children see what you do – so how you treat people will be shown via your children’s actions. I’ve recently had a discussion about this in a Facebook group. Parenting really makes me think about how I am living my life and also how my child will see me.

Blog things
Firstly I’d like to share some interesting blog posts of other people that I know you’ll enjoy reading:

Shante writes about why People of Colour should be included in brands’ campaigns

Lesego writes an interesting post called “The reason why I did not use birth control”

Venean shares what you shouldn’t do with a distracted child especially when it comes to doing homework

I was featured in a blog post of The Disruptors. I gave my five cents of what it means to be financially independent. Check it out here.

Parenting update
I’ve realised that I need to work on my relationships with my village. Currently, my village consists of friends here in Johannesburg. My family lives in Cape Town and in the Northern Cape.

Our two year old have developed an attachment phase – she wants both her parents visible when we are at home. If her dad is not around, which happens a lot, she sits and cries at the door. I feel like I don’t exist then because whatever I attempt to do, she ignores.

So when we’re around other people, she’s not focused much on one of us not being there. Hence I’m saying myself and her should probably go out more – I’m such a homebody.

Anyway, Princess can say a lot more, especially since she watches Peppa Pig (cartoon) a lot and they speak proper English on it. For example, she’d tell me “take it” if she no longer wants something or she’s finished with her bowl of food.

Yesterday when I came into the bedroom, she said “there” instead of “there you are”. So when I corrected her, she mimicked me and said: “there you are”.

It’s really cool to observe these developments. We also noticed that she’s really into wearing dresses and changing her clothes to her style. REALLY a lot.

Lastly, one of Princess’ teachers said goodbye to us this week, sadly. She’s pursuing a different career. She was such a gem and I had tears when she told us it’s her last day at school. We’ll miss you Teacher Kim – all the best with your journey ahead.

Focusing on staying in my lane and encouraging others to do the same is something I have been doing for years. We all have different gifts, talents, and abilities, so trying to be someone we are not will only have us coming up short

I love how open and honest you are, this is such a good way to be transparent on your blog. Parenting is tough and I feel like it is a daily struggle sometimes. Our little ones can wear us out, it’s so good to remember to be grateful even when it’s hard.

Lebo, ask yourself: what do you want to gain out of this mentorship? What do you want to learn from each mentor. Research them beforehand and see what skills or things they can offer to you. Good luck.

love that you’re taking notice of the subtlety of what a child notices. alot of Stephen kings themes show just how sometimes psychologically scarring parents can be without ever meaning to or even realize what they are saying. its important to make sure your kid doesnt have limiting beliefs